


The Old College Try

by RollsReus



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Everyone Is Gay, German National Team, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-02-21 03:58:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2453861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RollsReus/pseuds/RollsReus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>old college try (<i>idiomatic</i> )</p>
<p>1. Giving something your best shot, even if you aren't sure how to do it. </p>
<p>2. To gather your friends, buy some cheap beer, order a pizza, and forget about tomorrow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1. Hungover on Sunday

**Author's Note:**

> all mistakes are my own, and I own nothing but the plot

\---

There's certainly something to be said, Thomas thinks to himself, about having a _type_. Figuring out your type brings a sort of comfort and stability to your life. It's almost poetic, really. No doubt this is some deep psychological construct waiting to be broken down but, he decides, there's probably a better time and place for that. Not on the edge of a dimly lit dance floor, with his ass firmly in the hands of the man whose tongue is currently in Thomas' mouth.

Yeah, Thomas decides, having a type is _fucking awesome_.

\---

Waking up after a night at the bar is always an interesting experience. This morning, Thomas slides gracelessly out of bed in a familiar apartment. Which is slightly disappointing, he thinks sadly, because he has blurry memories of being felt up by a man with beautiful eyes (and a better ass). Just to be sure, he stretches out on the floor carefully.

Well, he certainly doesn't feel like "sex with a stranger." Mostly just hungover and very hungry.

Standing up, he makes his way downstairs. Passing a couch on the way to the kitchen he whisper shouts "morning Lewy" at it. The couch, for its part, makes a noncommittal _"shutuppleasedon'ttalk"_ sounding groan at him. Thomas laughs, and then remembers that he's here for the food- annoying a hungover Polish man could wait till after breakfast.

\---

Mats, according to himself, is a saint.

This usually causes everyone to roll their eyes and give various amounts of sass back to him, but everyone has to grudgingly admit that Mats has the saint-like quality of never being fazed.

Mats is reminded of this on mornings like these, when he walks downstairs and sees Thomas talking animatedly around a bowl of cereal to his couch. He's about to say something undoubtedly witty about insanity and inanimate objects when he hears someone behind him.

"Thomas," Benedikt says tiredly "please leave Lewy alone."

Right. The couch is Lewy. His roommate. Mats tends to forget this from time to time ("My name is on the bill!" Robert tends to say/yell. He also tends to move his hands around a lot. "How do you forget I live here? We painted this room together!") but who can really blame him.

He starts to make himself a bowl of cereal and turns to see Benedikt looking curiously up the stairs.

"So...were you sharing with Marco?" he asks, looking to Thomas. "MMfg?" and a confused glance are all he gets in return. Benedikt sighs. "You woke up in Marco's bed?" he asks. Thomas nods an affirmative. "Was Marco there?"

Thomas thinks for a minute, then shakes his head in a clear no.

"Mario" the couch mutters

"No, Marco" Thomas corrects, gingerly climbing onto the now moving couch lump "we know where Mario is."

A single blue eye glares disdainfully at him from under the blankets "then you know where Marco is."

"Oh." Thomas stops for a moment. "Oh! Right. _Riiight_."

"How did you even get here?" Robert yawns, slowly wiggling out from under Thomas. "Last I saw, you were really going at it with that older dude. Your "perfect type" or some shit that you go on about. What happened there?"

"He had to go, and we decided to take pity on our young friend" Mats threw out, noticing that Thomas wasn't entirely sure how to respond.

"I don't have many clear memories of last night" Thomas shrugs "just bits and pieces. You know I can't hold my liquor."

"We know." the room choruses.

\---

Across town, Marco sneezes.

"Your roommates must be looking for you" Mario mutters sleepily, burying his head into his pillow.

"What?" Marco rolls over, kicking out gently until he gets a response. All he can make out is something about sneezes and graves and people talking about him. He promptly decides that is too much for a Sunday morning, and falls back into the bed.

\---

The coffee pot finishes brewing at the exact moment that Thomas remembers something very important.

"Does Manu know I'm here? I don't think he came out last night."

"I texted him for you on your phone" Lewy says. He's still wrapped in his blankets, sitting stately on the couch. "By the way, why is my contact name in your phone 'Satan'?"

"Well......" Thomas begins, gesturing vaguely at him "you know. Cause, like....you know?"

The least threatening looking person in the room stares innocently back at him.

"No?"

Thomas looks over to Benedikt and Mats, but all they can do is shrug.

"You just know, man." Mats says sagely, making Benedikt put his head slowly into his hands.

Robert decides that he does _not_ , in fact know, but Marco probably will.

\---

From: Mülli!!  
"Thom drunk af, in mar's bed cause parently im payin rent for a fuckn couch"

Manuel has woken up to much weirder texts from Thomas' phone. Some examples include:  
"is it illegal to steal a duck pls tell me fast alllso def not asking for myself"  
"DOES MAYO EXPIRE URGENT MANU"  
"drunk cant f ind shoe" and the timeless follow ups of "shoe on andre" "andre in river?? ?"  


the point is, Manuel thinks, that when you've been friends with Thomas Muller for a certain amount of time you lose your grip on what is socially acceptable. That being said, he is still _slightly_ protective of his small energetic roommate. Lewy's passive aggressive efforts (because who else could it be) are enough, however, to ease his mind. 

To: Mülli!!  
"tell Lewy thanx also lemme know if I gotta beat up any guys for you xxx"

responses start coming through almost immediately

From: Mülli!!  
"thank u ilu ducky"  
"also i met a guy but you can't beat him up"  
"mainly cause he's beautiful"  
"but also kinda cause idk who he is??"  
"so i mean you're welcome to find him but pls don't hurt him xx"  


Manuel blinks slowly. Beautiful wasn't an adjective Thomas tended to throw around. Before he could begin his investigations however  


From: Satan  
"please collect your child before I murder him, thanks, love you"  


Manuel sighs.  


\---

From: lewwybae  
"why is my name is Thomas' phone satan"

From: lewwybae  
"holy fuck is my name in your phone satan"

From: lewwybae  
"MARCO"

To: Satan  
"it is now bae <333"

From: Satan  
"oh my g od i hate u"

\---

Thomas decides it's time to leave when Lewy starts making small angry noises at his phone. Luckily, Manuel chooses that moment to make a perfect timed entrance.

"You guys should probably lock your door" he says, shutting it gently behind him (Benedikt jumps) "now that it's a new semester, you might have dangerous punks living around you."

A chorus of groans greet his statement.

"It's the last day of freedom man, don't talk about school yet" Mats whines.

Thomas starts to rock from foot to foot anxiously.

"Something to share with the class, Müller?" Benedikt asks amusedly.

"I think this is going to be a great year!" Thomas says, smiling widely. "I think it's going to be our year."

The room laughs, and even Lewy looks up to crack a faint smile.

"Hey Thomas, maybe you'll even run into your mystery man" he says, watching Manuel help him into a coat.

Thomas shrugs as Manuel pushes him out the door. "Type or not, I doubt I'll ever see him again."

\---


	2. Sometimes A Lot Can Happen In One Sunday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all cats are kittens, but not all kittens are cats
> 
> (a bit more of Sunday before the real action starts)

From: dr. dré  
"can you come over like rn I need help walking animals"  
"like RN rn"

Mario reads the messages on his phone three times, before his brain clicks into gear. He stretches, reads them a fourth time, and decides that he's awake enough to help a brother out. As he pulls on his clothes, he throws a pillow gently at the lump in the middle of his bed. "I gotta go help André out real quick" he says over the _stopgoaway_ that floats out.

To: dr. dré  
"on the way bro"

He does, for a second, wonder what would warrant two people for walking animals. ' _Probably just wants company_ ' he thinks, and shuts his door behind him.

\---

Mario has found himself in weird situations plenty of times. One time he met someone with the exact same name getting the exact same coffee at the _exact_ same time that he was. Another time, Robert's Polish friend recited the entire first act of _As You Like It_ by memory (which started out weird but ended up mainly impressive.) What makes this weird is how many pairs of eyes are currently looking at him. 

"So, what did you name...them?"

André clears his throat, and looks the other way before responding "Scott"

There's a brief silence where neither man speaks, and then Mario asks almost hesitantly 

"All of them?"

André doesn't reply at first, just shakes his head and looks to the sky before responding "yeah" in the smallest voice Mario has even heard come out of him.

"Shit dude...you have seven cats."

André takes a moment from his internal soliloquy to turn the single bitchiest gaze Mario has ever seen (and he owns like three mirrors) towards his unfortunately honest friend. 

"Thank you Mario. I've always considered you one of the most faithful of my friends, and you've certainly helped me by _counting the cats sitting at my own damn feet._ "

Stepping back slightly, Mario opens his mouth once to reply 'kittens, really' before thinking better of it and instead scooping up one of the cats. They all seem a bit lost, which makes...all nine of them on the same page. Eventually André's pitying silence stretches too long and he just has to ask.

"Can you even walk a cat?"

André shrugs back "I guess we'll find out."

\---

André in this moment is considering himself a very lucky man for two distinct reasons: one, he isn't allergic to cats, and two, Mario hasn't asked how he ended up with seven. Since that certainly won't be the case much longer, he's considering the different stories he can tell to disguise the fact that he _doesn't know_. All he knows is he's only 20 € poorer, and he woke up this morning covered in cats.

Kittens really, he thinks vaguely.

"So how did you?" Mario starts gesturing at the kittens surrounding them. "Is this the first thing you did when you moved back?"

Ever the mature adult, André decides to tell the truth.

"I have no idea."

"You adopted seven cats on accident?" Mario asks incredulously, picking up a second one for emphasis. 

"That's pretty much it" he shrugs again "I went out last night, don't remember a thing past midnight, and then woke up surrounded by...Scott."

Mario snickers.

"I know what it sounds like when I say it like that, thanks." André says in a long-suffering tone, dejectedly sitting down among the cats. The tiniest Scott promptly crawls into his lap, effectively pinning him to the ground and erasing all thoughts of attempting to walk them.

"So we aren't gonna try this for science, right?" Mario asks, joining him on his floor. "Because I think Scott is asleep. And so are Scott, and Scott." Sure enough, the Scotts in Mario's arms have squeezed their eyes shut and show no signs of moving anytime soon.

Gathering a second Scott into his lap, André looked at Mario helplessly "what am I going to do with _seven_ cats- 

"Kittens, they are definitely kittens."

"Yet again, very helpful Mario thank you. What am I going to do with seven KITTENS?"

"Well," Mario started thoughtfully, "I could take these two for a bit. And Robert probably likes kittens. So now you've only got four to worry about."

André groans.

"I mean" Mario starts, before being immediately interrupted by his phone "oh hey could you get that out of my pocket for me? I don't want to put down Scotts."

André fishes the phone out of Mario's pockets, unlocking it to read

From: MMM@@@  
roomie meeting in 30 minutes lovelies xxxx

"You're not actually roommates with Mats though, right?" 

"Nah" Mario responds, playing with a new Scott, "this just means Marco is ignoring him. Text him back 'he'll be there' and add the kissing emoji or a heart or something."

To: MMM@@@  
he'll be there  
shit I forgot ♥♥♥  
sorry this is andré

From: MMM@@@  
all is forgiven my lovely snow white prince just get my blonde roomie to me xx

"Mario, why does Mats text like an aunt?"

"It's part of his charm, don't question it."

\---

"Now that everyone has finally joined us, _Marco_ , we can begin the first roommate meeting of the semester" Mats flourishes a blank note pad and a pen from behind him and quickly scrawls 'first!! :)' on the first page.

"Why is he here?" Lewy questions from the couch.

"Well Benedikt is in my room 90 percent of the time so I figured he kinda belongs" Mats replies, not looking up from his notepad.

"I think he was talking about Thomas" Benedikt whispers, glancing at the three figures sandwiched on the couch.

Mats looks up and looks around for the first time, notices a waving Thomas opposite him.

"I invited him" Marco says, stretching. "He's in my bed more than I am, so I only figured it was right."

"Then why the hell am I here? If this is a meeting for people who sleep in beds, the couch delegation shouldn't be required to attend."

"Shush all of you" Mats interrupts, raising his arms for silence. "Lewy, you are _legally_ still my roommate. Marco, it's still _your_ bed."

"Possession is nine tenths of the law" Marco responds, crossing his arms.

"Well then I fucking own this couch"

"Oh my god shut up for just a second about the couch it's your choice to not live in harmonious companionship in my room"

"Harmonious companionship does _not_ involve constant 'unconfirmed relationship' sex noises"

"We're boyfriends" Benedikt interjects

"That _really_ doesn't make the sex noises any better"

"Lewy seeing as you are like a younger brother-"

"Mats I am **older than you** "

"-a younger brother in my heart, I feel uncomfortable talking about my sex life in front of you."

A hand shoots up from the middle of the couch.

"Yes Thomas?"

"Why isn't Lewy just in Marco's room? Also where did the cat come from?"

The men are silent for a moment, until Lewy holds up his hand.

"I'm on the couch because Marco only has one bed in his room. And he kicks."

"I do not-"

"Yes you do" the room interrupts.

A small meow cuts through the impending argument.

This doesn't startle anyone but Benedikt, who thanks every possible higher power that no one seems to have noticed. To be honest, he had forgotten about the cat. He still hasn't even seen the cat. The cat chooses this moment to make an appearance, popping up out of Lewy's sweatshirt. Which explained why no one had noticed it, but also didn't explain how Thomas _had_. Sometimes, Benedikt was certain that guy had a sort of sixth sense for animals.

"This is Kanape, and he is mine" Lewy says, pulling the cat (more like a kitten, Benedikt thinks) into his lap. "None of you can have him, and he is my new roommate."

"Apparently Mario got him from André who got drunk and adopted seven kittens last night" Marco says, scratching the ex-Scott behind his ears "his first night back in town for years, and he's already regretting it."

\---

"Well as positively productive as this first meeting has been, let's quit while we're ahead" Kittens are infinitely more interesting than...whatever he had planned to talk about anyway, Mats decided. He sighed. "Everyone go home and rest up for tomorrow."

"I still live in this fucking apartment, Mats, on this same couch." 

"Marco and Thomas left like fifteen minutes ago" Benedikt throws in from the kitchen "now stop posing like you're some under-appreciated genius and come help make dinner."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am alive! my irl college try is kicking my ass! but I am alive so this story is alive!
> 
> I'm so sorry this is more filler before anything happens but you know what it's because the plot is far from resolved in my head and this idea WOULD NOT LEAVE (I love cats, sue me)
> 
> ((please don't sue me I'm so broke))
> 
> I'm literally destroying myself over the fact that I decided to write the first chapter in a completely different tense than I'm used to so this took extra long because of it...I haven't decided if I'm gonna stick with this tense BUT we will see. I hope this chapter is satisfactory cause the location of the stars change if I like my own writing (never) so if it's wrong or terrible I'll probably catch it when I wake up 
> 
> I saw all of your DAMN NICE COMMENTS and I need to respond to them but since this is linked through a different email I kept.......forgetting.........
> 
> ANYWAYS I will finish up the next chapter(s) as soon as I can (after my exams this week 3) and fingers crossed that I'll actually introduce the rest of the cast and crew (I meant to in this but...it ran away with me and I wanted to get something up) ((I promise we'll get the main pairing going soon))

**Author's Note:**

> here ends chapter one of the first fic I've posted (but almost definitely not the last)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it, and want more (because that will motivate me to actually make my lazy ass write faster)
> 
> fuckle your seatbelts kiddos, and follow me into a story whose plot I don't even fully know yet


End file.
